Another international group has come out with a report highly critical of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, saying the rapid increase in greenhouse gas is threatening ocean-based food security because of acidification.

The report by Oceana, an organisation focused solely on ocean conservation and protecting marine ecosystems, said Monday that the world needs to reduce CO2 emissions and end fossil fuel subsidies.

Its report, “Ocean-based Food Security Threatened in a High CO2 World,” noted that while fish and seafood are a primary source of protein for more than one billion of the poorest people on Earth, rising carbon dioxide emissions are causing the oceans to warm and become more acidic.

“The oceans absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide emissions each day. As a result, their pH has declined by 30 [%] since the Industrial Revolution,” the report said.

“This rapid change in ocean chemistry, called ocean acidification, is already threatening habitats like coral reefs, and the future of shellfish like oysters, clams and mussels is also in jeopardy. This means that nations that rely heavily on threatened types of fisheries as a primary food source could be hit hardest.”

Using a computer model that looked at the 1,066 species of fish and seafood that are commercially caught, the report noted that by 2055 losses of up to 40% of catch potential can be expected in the tropics while some areas near the North and South Poles would experience gains.

It also came up with a list of the top 50 nations in terms of combined vulnerability to food security threats from climate change and ocean acidification impacts on seafood availability.

The top three nations were Comoros, Togo and the Cook Islands. The only European nation on the list was Croatia at number 16.

In a section called “Solutions,” which was accompanied by a photograph of offshore wind turbines, the report said, among other things, reducing CO2 emissions is the only way to address ocean acidification and is also the primary path to ending climate change. “Governments need to establish energy plans that chart a course for shifting away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy production.”

It also called for an end to fossil fuel subsidies, saying they prevent the needed transition to clean energy. “Optimally, we would invest in technologies that promise solutions rather than creating them.”

The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) has long lobbied for a drastic reduction in the global CO2 emissions caused by fossil fuels and a rapid move towards a green economy based on wind power and other renewables. Part of this necessary transition, EWEA believes, is an end to subsidies for coal, oil gas and nuclear. The International Energy Agency has said that for every $1 of government support given to renewable energy around the world, at least $5 are given to fossil fuels.

In a letter published in the Financial Times on Friday 21 September EWEA Communication Director Julian Scola pointed out that “governments across Europe could save themselves a lot of money, and hasten the phasing out of support for increasingly mature renewable technologies like onshore wind, if they first removed longer-standing subsidies for more established technologies like nuclear and coal.”

One Response to “Carbon dioxide emissions are harming oceans and threatening food supplies”

Another option is growing plants like Agave and Opuntia(CAM Plants – Crassulacean Acid Metabolism ). Both are care free growth plants which can be grown in waste lands. Mexico is already doing this.

Crassulacean acid metabolism, also known as CAM photosynthesis, is a carbon fixationpathway that evolved in some plants as an adaptation to arid conditions In a plant using full CAM, the stomata in the leaves remain shut during the day to reduce evapotranspiration, but open at night to collect carbon dioxide (CO2). The CO2 is stored as the four-carbon acidmalate, and then used during photosynthesis during the day. The pre-collected CO2 is concentrated around the enzyme RuBisCO, increasing photosynthetic efficiency.

Biological carbon sequestration

Biological (or terrestrial) sequestration involves the net removal of CO2 from the atmosphere by plants and micro-organisms and its storage in vegetative biomass and in soils.
Biological sequestration offers many potential advantages:
• could sequester relatively large volumes of carbon at comparatively low cost
• protecting or improving soils, water resources, habitat, and biodiversity
• generate rural income
• promotes more sustainable agriculture and forestry practices

Soils

Agricultural carbon sequestration has the potential to substantially mitigate global warming impacts. At the same time, employing methods to enhance carbon sequestration in soil will increase soil quality. Soils contain more carbon than is contained in vegetation and the atmosphere combined.
Carbon is stored within soil organic matter (SOM). SOM is a complex mixture of carbon compounds, consisting of decomposing plant and animal tissue, microbes (protozoa, nematodes, fungi, and bacteria), and carbon associated with soil minerals. Methods that significantly enhance carbon sequestration in soil include
• conservation tillage (low till / no-till farming) – minimizing or eliminating manipulation of the soil for crop production. This includes the practice of mulch tillage, which leaves crop residues on the soil surface. These procedures generally reduce soil erosion, improve water use efficiency, and increase carbon concentrations in the topsoil. Conservation tillage can also reduce the amount of fossil fuel consumed by farm operations
• cover cropping – the use of crops such as clover and small grains for protection and soil improvement between periods of regular crop production. Cover crops improve carbon sequestration by enhancing soil structure, and adding organic matter to the soil.
• crop rotation – planting different crops on a rotating pattern of years (e.g. corn-oats-clover) will reduce the loss of carbon from the soil and with some additions (e.g. manure-lime-phosphorous) will add carbon to soils
All of the methods above are more widely used in organic farming than in conventional farming. Carbon stored in soils oxidizes rapidly.